


stop letting these teenagers run around by themselves

by boston_sized_city



Category: An Atompunk Opera: The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness - Shapera
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27548656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boston_sized_city/pseuds/boston_sized_city
Summary: Pain, I guess. Does anyone even read summaries anymore? Uh, Lee gets hurt because he's stupid. That's it, that's the fic.
Relationships: Adrian/Lee Morgan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	stop letting these teenagers run around by themselves

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old fic I wrote before knowing most of the lore- It's edited, and is now about as canon compliant as it's gonna get. How compliant is that? Uh. Probably works if you don't squint too hard. (Please don't squint too hard I just really wanted to post this and the lore is scary, I understand zero things about Arcadia).
> 
> Also yeah, canon compliant means that the future bad stuff still happens.  
> CW for serious injury (head wound, blood mentions, doesn't get too gory in description)

At exactly five in the morning, sixteen-year-old Adrian was awake and out of bed, already dressed and ready to do whatever it was he was doing. He crossed the room to where the other bed was, and sat down on Lee’s legs. “Wake up,” he whispered, shaking the other boy’s shoulder gently.

Lee groaned in response. “What time is it?” He mumbled, trying to shift onto his side. He cracked an eye open and frowned at Adrian.

“Time to wake up.” Lee’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, it’s five in the morning. Get up.” Adrian grinned, getting off him and standing up. The smaller boy didn’t move. “Please?” He pouted, giving his best puppy-dog eyes, which he picked up from Lee.

“But it’s  _ so early,”  _ Lee complained. He propped himself up on his elbows and frowned at Adrian. “Why do you want to get up now?”

Adrian grinned at him. “You’ll see,” he said, an admittedly terrifying expression on his face. Terrifying in the fact that he was grinning, and his eyes were shining. He was definitely planning something that would get them in trouble.

Lee stretched and got up. He patted Adrian’s shoulder and went to walk to his closet to get dressed. “I hate you,” he mumbled.

“Aw, love you, too, babe!” Adrian laughed and stood against the wall, crossing his arms as he waited. “You don’t have to look like a millionaire,” he said, watching Lee fumble for clothes. “Just have pants on by the time we leave.”

As soon as they were both ready, Adrian grabbed Lee’s hand and pulled him outside, through the window. Normally, he would have used the door, but Amber slept right across the hall, and would catch them. So Adrian settled on the window.

“So, where are we going?” Lee asked, now walking beside him. Instead of answering, Adrian just smiled at him and walked faster. Lee stumbled a bit, but kept up. “Adri, seriously, where are we going? Are you going to kill me? Please don’t kill me. What’s going on?”

Adrian stopped. They were in the middle of nowhere. No, not nowhere. A base of Arcadia Corps. “Come on,” Adrian said as he tugged on Lee’s hand.

Lee didn’t move, staring up at the large, steel building in front of them. “We shouldn’t be here. We can’t be here. Your mom-"

“Amber isn’t in charge of you,” Adrian reminded him. “Technically, you can do whatever you want.” He still had that grin on his face.

“She's in charge of _you_ ,” Lee pointed out, frowning. 

Adrian rolled his eyes. “Oh, come  _ on.  _ Don’t you think this’ll be fun? I’ve never seen the inside! Please? It’s my birthday!”

At that, Lee’s eyes widened slightly. He’d forgotten. “It’s your  _ what?  _ I’m sorry- I was gonna- I meant to-”

The other boy laughed. “It’s fine. I forget sometimes, anyway. I only remember now because  _ yours  _ is tomorrow.” He grinned again, and Lee smiled. “So, this can count for both.  _ My  _ present is you helping me sneak in here without telling my mom, and  _ yours  _ is I won’t tell your dad everything.” He wouldn't, anyway. 

Lee sighed, rolling his eyes. “Fine. Only because it’s your birthday. Don’t do anything that’ll make me regret this.”

Adrian grinned wider, laughing. “Yes! Thank you! Okay, do, uh, do you happen to know how to get in?” He asked. Truthfully, he hadn’t really thought this through. He had an end goal, but no way to get there. 

Lee showed him, using the extra key-card he kept on hand (read: stole from Amber's pocket once) to open the doors. Adrian clung to his arm as they walked inside. No one seemed to notice the boys, or at least, no one cared that they were there. One person turned their head to look at Adrian and Lee, and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. There was a room that seemed to be interesting, but when Adrian tried it, the door was locked. 

“Aw, guess we’re out of luck,” Lee muttered. “Better try again later.” He tried to turn around to leave, but Adrian stopped him, looking somewhere else.

“No, let’s look over there,” he said, seeing an open lab door with a dim light coming from the room. He was grinning madly, and Lee would clearly not be able to deter him from going inside.

So they went inside. Adrian let go of Lee’s hand, looking around at the wide room. No one was inside, but a large machine was running. It looked like some kind of platform, with a sparking hologram sphere hovering above it.

“Woah, cool!” Lee couldn’t help it. He’d never been in this room before, and it did look  _ really  _ cool. Then they heard the door slam behind him. Lee turned and saw the door was shut, and there was no inside handle. He cursed. It was actually quite creative for him. Adrian was ninety-percent sure that he made half of those words up, as he had never heard a single other living person ever say them.

Adrian ran to the door and tried to push it open. It didn’t budge. “Seriously?” He groaned, and glanced back at Lee. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would-”

“It’s fine. Someone will notice that the door is closed,” Lee said, trying to reassure Adrian, but also himself. He’d never gotten in too much trouble before, and now was a terrible time to start. Also, the room didn’t really have windows or anything, and he was extremely claustrophobic. He looked back at the odd machine. “Do you want to check that thing out?”

“Yeah,” Adrian decided after a moment, walking back to him and taking his hand. He looked less excited, and more worried than he had been. Lee squeezed his hand reassuringly, and pulled him a little closer. “What  _ is  _ it?”

Lee shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve never been in here before.” He looked at it again. “It looks like some kind of time machine or something.”

Adrian laughed. “Lee, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “Actually, that sounds pretty awesome,” he said. He laughed again, his smile back.

“Doesn’t it?” Lee smiled back at him and let go of his hand, moving closer to the machine. Adrian stayed put, watching him carefully. “It looks super cool up close, Adrian, you gotta check it out.”

The other boy shook his head, and stayed silent. He was chewing his lip nervously. “Be careful over there!” He called. His face wrinkled with concern as he looked at Lee.

“I’ll be fine,” Lee said quietly. His expression softened. “I’m being careful. Don’t worry, okay?” He gave Adrian a thumbs-up.

Lee was used to this kind of worrying. He didn’t get in trouble often, but that didn’t mean he was careful. He was just generally dishonest about the ways he would get hurt. He faintly remembered one time he’d been racing Adrian through the headquarters, and split his knee against a doorway after skidding in the hall. Of course, this was bad, so he told his dad (and Amber, who he was much more scared of) that he’d fallen while hover-boarding with his friend in the park.

Adrian was not the type to worry. He never had been. He didn’t worry about himself, or the city, or even his mother (she could take care of herself). But the moment he met Lee, he had someone to worry about. Lee was reckless, and impulsive. He got hurt every other minute, and sometimes it was really bad. And Adrian worried about him constantly. Even a year ago, on their first date, Lee had run into a broken metal door and cut his forehead (and Amber had, of course, apologized for keeping that door open and cleaned the boy up quickly).

He just nodded, looking distant. “Just… Don’t do anything stupid,” he said quietly, but loud enough for the other boy to hear.

Lee grinned at him, and went closer to the machine until it was right in front of him. The odd-looking hologram sparked and moved above the metal platform. He reached his hand out and gestured a bit, like a wave. The light flickered. “Cool!” He did it again. “Adrian! Come look at this!”

“I’m looking!” Adrian called back. He was, in fact, looking. He was still understandably worried, biting his lip hard. He didn’t like how close Lee was, and he  _ definitely  _ didn’t like that he was holding his hand out so close to it. “I was serious when I said be careful!” He added after a moment, as Lee gestured at the machine again, even closer this time. “Maybe it’s just me, but I actually really prefer my boyfriends  _ alive!” _

“You’re being dramatic!” Lee called with another grin. His voice echoed, as did the laugh that followed. “It’s just a cool light, I’ll be fine!” He sounded confident. Way too confident. “You worry too much!” He laughed again.

“I think I worry just enough,” Adrian shot back. “It’s not even Tuesday and you’ve almost killed yourself twice this week!”

Lee stuck out his tongue childishly in response and turned back towards the large thing in front of him. Looking closer, it was unlike any machine he’d ever seen. The machine itself was actually next to the platform, a raised panel of switches and screens and buttons. It looked like a soundboard with scarier labels over some buttons. The platform did not seem to be performing any machine-like tasks. It seemed as if it existed just to sit underneath whatever the strange light was.

He stuck his hand back out, this time reaching just in front of the light. It nearly touched his finger tips. He turned his head and grinned.

“Don’t you dare!” Adrian called from where he was still standing. His arms were crossed. “If you touch that thing, I swear to god-”

“Relax, jeez.” Lee dropped his hand, and turned fully to walk back. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, he was not exactly the most graceful of the Voodoopunks. His heel caught against a rough edge cut into the hard floor. Before he could even grab onto something or call out, he fell backwards. Luckily, he wasn’t close enough to hit the light, but the back of his head slammed against the metal platform. He went limp, visibly unconscious but definitely still alive, from the unsteady rise and fall of his chest. 

Finally, Adrian moved. He ran to Lee’s side, kneeling next to him. “Oh, god…” He felt sick, his stomach twisting painfully. “Please be okay.” Carefully, he moved his hand under the other boy’s head, lifting him to sit up as he felt him breathing. He held Lee’s back, and his other hand came away bloody. Lee’s brightly-colored blue hair was going dark in the back, blood dripping down his neck and soaking the back of his shirt. 

Adrian’s heart dropped, a lump rising in his throat. He glanced at the door, which looked as if it would not open for years. His vision blurred suddenly, and he dragged his sleeve across his eyes. He sat the unconscious boy back against a wall and stood up, going to the closed door. And he did what kids do best. He yelled. A lot. He didn’t stop until his voice grew tired and his chest was heaving.

The door opened to Adrian sitting in front of it, messing with a wad of tape, his eyes partly closed as he fidgeted worriedly. Hank propped the door open and knelt down in front of him, and he looked up, his eyes widening slightly. “Hey, kid.” He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t seem angry, either. He was rarely here; Visiting his friend during longer days. Adrian rarely saw him, though he was a sort of acting father figure to them, and the other younger voodoopunks. “Figured you’d get an early start on the trouble, huh?”

Instead of the usual snarky remark, Adrian started crying again. “Help- You gotta help- It wasn’t supposed to-  _ Please _ .” 

Hank looked past him. His eyes widened. “Is that- Jeez, kid, you gotta be kidding me.” He stood, hauling Adrian up with him, and went down towards where the bloody machine was. And then he was on the floor in front of Lee, holding the young boy away from the wall to look at his head. “I don’t know how you two managed this one,” he said to Adrian, letting out a deep sigh. “He’s still breathing, and he’ll likely be fine. Don’t know how much a head injury would affect someone with as thick a head as you two’ve got,” he muttered under his breath as he ripped off part of his sleeve and tied it around the kid’s head. He stood, lifting Lee up. “I’ll take him to the hospital wing,” he said, looking over at Adrian. “You can come, but if you even  _ think  _ about leaving my sight, you will never leave your room again.”

Adrian nodded furiously, and followed Hank out of the large room. He still looked extremely nervous. “You said  _ likely  _ fine,” he said at one point as they walked, pulling his sleeves down over his hands and staring at the ground.

“You know I promised I’d never let anything bad happen to you,” Hank said, glancing at him. “So by extension, I can’t let anything bad happen to this idiot either.” He tried keeping it lighthearted, to ease Adrian’s anxiety a bit. He couldn’t tell how well it was working.

Apparently, it was working quite well. Adrian visibly relaxed, and it was clear how much he trusted Hank. It was understandable, since really no other adult really made any effort to try with them, try keeping them safe with everyone else, and he and Lee were both still alive and well. Well, alive.

Adrian gazed at him warily, trying not to look at the limp body in his arms. “He’s my boyfriend,” he said quietly, like it was a secret. It never had been (audible cough from the narrator). 

“I know, Adrian,” Hank said, glancing at him once again. He kept walking.

“He’s important to me,” the teenager added, running a nervous hand through his hair as he tried to keep up with Hank, lagging behind.

Hank didn’t look at him this time. “I know, Adrian,” he repeated. His voice was almost distant.

“I love him,” Adrian said then, and Hank looked back at him. Adrian’s eyes were on the ground in front of him, watching his feet as he walked, and there were tears in them. Every so often, he’d blink back more.

And even though he’d never heard that before, or even thought about it, Hank said, “I know.” He said it softly, shifting Lee so one hand was free, and setting that hand on Adrian’s shoulder. (Narrator would like readers to know that he was going to take this entire walking part out but then got real sad and decided soft Hank was the cure.)

They made it, and Adrian didn’t go in at first. He waited outside in the hallway, sitting against the opposite wall. His lip was bloody from him nervously chewing it, and he stopped, afraid he might bite through it. He switched to his nails, which weren’t much different, but he cared less.

Finally, after what might have been a few hours, the door opened again. Adrian stood up quickly when he saw Hank.

“Be careful,” Hank said gently. “He’s weak, and he has a  _ massive  _ headache.” Adrian did not find that as funny as he did.

Adrian nearly shoved past Hank as he went into the room, his sneakers skidding on the floor. He found Lee’s bed and walked over, a bit slowly. “Lee,” he said softly. “Are you awake?”

Lee opened his eyes to look at him. One eye was a bit red, but it didn’t look like anything too bad. He cracked a small, weak smile. “Hey, Adri…”

Of course, Adrian took this to mean that he was okay enough to have his hand grabbed and held quite tightly. Lee winced a bit, and Adrian loosened his grip. “I told you to be careful. You really could have died this time, Lee.” His voice skidded a bit on ‘died.’

“But I didn’t.” Lee’s voice was quiet and hoarse. “And I won’t. I’ve decided to become immortal. You couldn’t handle living without me.”

And Adrian laughed. “You’re right,” he said. “I couldn’t.” He sat down at the edge of the small bed. “If you could be immortal, I would absolutely force you to do that. I’m completely helpless on my own.”

“I know you are.” Lee smiled up at him. Then his smile wavered, fading. “And… I’m sorry.” His gaze wandered, looking everywhere but at Adrian.

Adrian squeezed his hand gently. “I know. It’s okay. I’m just… I’m glad you’re okay.” He bent over Lee, smoothing the younger boy’s hair. It was dry and crisp from the blood. He tried to ignore that.

Lee smiled again, as much as he could. “I shouldn’t have gone down there,” he said after a moment. 

“I shouldn’t have made you come here with me,” Adrian said, almost challengingly.   
Lee sighed. He was clearly giving up on having this argument with Adrian. He tugged on the other boy’s hand, using it to sit himself up, with some struggle. Adrian smiled as he felt Lee’s arms go around him, and felt his weight shift to lean on him. “You sure you’re okay enough to sit up?” He asked.

“I don’t care.” Lee shook his head slightly. He rested his chin on Adrian’s shoulder, looking at him. “It doesn’t hurt, so. I guess I’m fine.”

Adrian shifted a bit, rather comfortable. “You were literally bleeding out of your head an hour ago,” he said, then sighed, giving up. “If you’re sure.” Lee smiled at him and kissed his cheek. “Disgusting,” Adrian mumbled, closing his eyes for a moment with a small smile.

“I know, I know. I'm gross. You love me, though.” He fell back onto the bed with a wince, burrowing into the unusually large amount of pillows.

Adrian curled up next to him, luckily small enough to fit comfortably against his side on the bed. “Yeah.” He wrapped an arm around Lee, holding him close as the other closed his eyes. “I do.”


End file.
